Finding out the Truth
by Athenachild101
Summary: What if all you had to do to find out was opening a box? What if opening that box meant Lying? Changing? And learning the secrets that have been kept from you for years? Would you open the box? For 13 year old Maggie Mellark, her 11 year old brother Matt, and their best friends Julia Mason and Kyle Odair, the decision is easy. Of course they will open the box. Rated T to be safe.
1. Description

What if your whole world was turned upside down... just by opening a box?

What if, opening that box meant never going back?

If opening the box meant

Lying to your parents?

Changing... forever?

And finding out a dark secret that has been hidden for the last 20 years?

Would you still open the box?

For 13 year old Maggie Mellark, the answer is a resounding yes. She is sick of her parents keeping secrets from her, and will do anything to find out the truth. Join Maggie, her 11 year old brother, Matt, and her best friends Julia Mason and Kyle Odair as they find out just what happened before they were born.


	2. Chapter 1: A normal(ish) morning

Maggie Mellark hit it. Hard. She hated her stupid alarm, and all that it stood for: homework, school, and most of all, getting up early. After she slammed down on it, she thought better of it: she had already broken 4 clocks this year, and her mother said that if she broke another one she would have to buy it herself. And it was only October!

Just as Maggie was steeling herself to get out of her comfortable bed, a knock on the door made her start. "Coming, Mother!" Maggie yelled, hoping that it would buy her some time to get dressed. No such luck. Katniss Everdeen pulled open the door and walked across Maggie's messy floor.

"Good morning, Maggie." Katniss said. "Your father and I have been thinking...", Maggie's ears perked up. She knew that what was coming was going to be awful: Katniss only pretended that Peeta had actually had any say in the matter when it was something important. Both of them knew he just agreed with whatever Katniss said. "Well, we have been thinking that... we are going to home school you!"

"WHAT?" Maggie exclaimed. "Why?"

Katniss looked uncomfortable. "Well, this year the curriculum gets a little... well, your father and I don't agree with what the school is teaching you this year. Your brother, Julie, and Kyle will all be homeschooling too, so you don't need to worry about being lonely or anything like that."

Maggie thought this over. It would mean no more getting up early, no homework, and getting to spend the whole day with her friends. There was just one thing...

"Will you be teaching me, mom?" Maggie asked hesitantly.

"Me?" Her mother exclaimed "Good lord, no. Your father and Annie will probably do most of the teaching- Johanna and I might help out with gym... or something like that."

Maggie giggled. "How about baking? I hear you are the best chef in all of Panem!"

Katniss gave Maggie a mock serious glare. "Now, now, young lady. There are some things that we simply don't tease about. I'll see you downstairs at 8:00 sharp for math... or your father will. And now pajamas!"

Maggie smiled as her mother left. 8:00... that was a full hour later then school usually started! And she could wear her sweats all day! Yes, she was definitely enjoying this whole "Homeschooling" thing.

It was only noon, and Maggie was already bored with homeschool. Her dad was probably the worst teacher ever. She thought back to when she had went down to the basement, and it had been transformed into the schoolroom. It was very old-fashioned, with a chalkboard and weird desks. "What is this place?" Maggie had asked. Her dad had been very confused by her question.

"It's a schoolroom, Maggie! It's just like how our schoolroom used to look. We didn't have whiteboards back then- Prim's class was the first to get them."

"Who is Prim?" Maggie had asked. Her dad's eyes went wide and got that look like he knew he had misspoke.

"Now turn to page... uh... 222 in your maths book." He said quickly, trying to cover up. And since he refused to acknowledge that he was just trying to cover up, they had to struggle through page 222 all day long- and they hadn't even gotten to page 22 in her other school. The second slip up of the day came when Julia asked why they couldn't use more coal in the fire to make it warmer. Peeta had said that she should talk to Gale and find out how hard it was to mine coal, but after Matt asked him who Gale was he got "the look" again. At this rate, they would never get past math.

**Thanks so much for reading! ****_PLEASE comment_****! I promise that the rest of the chapters will all be much longer- I just wanted to give y'all a bit of backround. Right now, the next chapters will probably be something like this:**

**Chapter 2: More backround, Maggie and Julia go to forest.**

**Chapter 3: Julia and Maggie discover "the box", and the real story starts! Hope you all enjoy! I will try to update within a week, but maybe I would go faster if you comment me! If you want a sneak peek of chapter 2, PM me or leave a comment with your name and email.**

**Love y'all! 3**


	3. Chapter 2: A Walk in the Woods

Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER:**

**I forgot to add this to Chapter 1, so here is a double disclaimer. The HG and all of it's characters belong to Suzanne Collins. I own my own characters (which are mostly Maggie, Julia, Matthew, and Kyle). That goes for this whole story, in case I forget to post the disclaimer :) Thanks!**

Maggie sighed, and started to get up from the bench where she had been thinking. She knew that the afternoon would hopefully be better, as Annie Odair was going to be teaching them English. She slowly stood up and walked inside, where Julia was waiting for her. Maggie was glad to see her friend, especially as Julia looked as bored as Maggie felt. As soon as Julia noticed Maggie, she started to talk a mile a minute.

"Hi, Maggie! Oh my gosh, uh, no offense but your dad was a awful teacher this morning. How could he possibly expect me to know ALGEBRA, for Panem's sake? I mean, I didn't understand pre-algebra!" Julia moaned overdramatically. Maggie giggled. Her and her friends all liked to joke about what they were going to be when they grew up, but they all knew that Julia was going to be an actress: she was such a drama queen!

"Yeah. Do you want to go tell Annie that we are not feeling good, and then go around and explore the woods? Mom won't care- she said that just as long as we stay within sight of the edge of the forest or the trail we can go into the woods whenever we want." Maggie said to Julia. Julia nodded.

"Kay. but what about Kyle and Matt? If we say that we are going out into the woods, they are gonna want to come too. They will never let us go exploring without them!" Julia sid matter-of-factly. Maggie groaned. Julia was right- if they brought them along on their hike/exploring trip, they would just scare away all of the animals. Plus, she had really just wanted to spend some time with Julia- alone. It was funny how different from her mother, Johanna , Julia was. Johanna came over almost everyday to talk to Maggie's parents, and she was harsh, and to the point, and not bubbly at all. Whenever Maggie's mom had one of her nightmares, Johanna would be over in about 10 seconds to bring Matt and Maggie to her house for the night. Lately, they had been going over a lot. Julia, on the other hand, was like a hyper puppy. She never stopped bouncing and smiling and giggling, and she would always be the person who broke up arguments between Matt and Maggie and Kyle, though Maggie thought that the only reason she bothered to break up arguments was because it meant that she wasn't the center of attention. Even though she had so many annoying qualities, Maggie knew that she could trust Julia with anything. Julia would never, ever purposefully hurt anyone, especially her best friend. Julia suddenly interrupted Maggie's thoughts.

"Well, Maggie? What do you think we should do?" Julia asked Maggie.

"Umm... Let's not say that we are going to go out in the woods! Let's tell Annie that we are not feeling good and then the boys won't be suspicious, so..." Maggie trailed off as the girls heard footsteps coming up the stairs from the basement where the schoolroom was. They looked at each other nervously. What if someone had heard them talking about not wanting to go back to school? Just as Maggie was about to suggest that they hide until they could see who it was, the door popped open. The girls saw Annie standing in the doorway... and she didn't look mad! Maggie let out a small sigh of relief, and she could feel Julia doing the same thing next to her. As Maggie opened her mouth, ready to tell the prepared lie about not feeling well, Annie started talking.

"Oh, good. Just who I was hoping to see! I just wanted to let you know that school is done for the day, because the boys said that they don't feel well. We will start with English tomorrow, first thing. Does that sound okay with you?" Annie questioned. Maggie and Julia didn't have to hesitate at all before answering "YES!". Annie laughed at them.

"Oh, I remember what it is like to be young and not want to go to school. You two run along, and enjoy your afternoon off! Goodbye!" Maggie and Julia heeded her advice, and had soon clambered over the small, single wire that ran along the ground. Mother said that it used to be much taller, and used to keep people in, but now it was solely used to keep animals out. Maggie couldn't imagine that a fence to keep people out would do much good: all they had to do was climb in between the wires, and they might just get a few scratches. It wasn't like it could hurt the people, right?

"Maggie! Stop thinking so much! Why so serious?" Julia's voice snapped Maggie out of her freeze. Shaking her limbs slightly, as if to get rid of a butterfly that had landed on her shoulder, Maggie started to walk. As she walked she did one of her favorite relaxation exercises: first, she thought of everything she was grateful for. The list was quite long: Her friends, her family, their good health, her good health, the fact that they had a roof over their heads, food on the table, and clothes on their backs. The list went on and on. Then, Maggie listed the things that annoyed her, or that she didn't like: Katniss's nightmares, home school, her parents being secretive, home school, and so on. This list was much shorter, but still had plenty of things on it. Now came the hard part. Maggie had to imagine a way to either fix a problem or put a positive spin on it so it was something she could be thankful for. Sometimes she wished she weren't so good at coming up with long lists of bad stuff. She decided she could be grateful for homeschool because it let her see her friends and family more, as well as being able to do things like her walk in the woods. Her families secretiveness and her mother's nightmares were the hardest to spin into something positive, but she finally decided that every flaw made her family who they are, and she wouldn't change who her family was for anything in the whole entire world. Since she was done and feeling very relaxed, she let herself realize where they were. By the location, she could immediately tell that they had been walking about ten minutes, and were only 2 minutes away from her and Julia's favorite place to hang out. Breaking into a run, she called to Julia to hurry up.

"I'm coming, Mags! Not all of us have been sprinting around these woods since practically the day we were born!" Julia grumbled happily. Even when Julia was upset, she was still smiling and giggling. It just wasn't in her nature to be grumpy- ever. Maggie allowed herself a small smile at Julia's compliment. She was the fastest runner out of everyone in her class- including the boys. Well, she used to be the fastest in her class before she started to be homeschooled. She supposed that now the insufferable Oliver Wood would be the fastest person in the class. Maggie hated Oliver with a passion- he was selfish, stuck up, and a bully. At least she never had to see him again now that she was homeschooled!

"Seriously, Mags, can we take a break?" Julia whined again. Maggie stopped and spun around, her brown braid whipping the side of her face. She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for Julia to catch her breath.

"Come on, Jules, we are only a few hundred meters away from our favorite place." Maggie moaned. Julia stood up, rosy-cheeked and sweaty, and agreed that they would continue, as long as they could walk. Maggie agreed, and soon they had arrived at their special place.

To anyone else, Maggie and Julia's hideout would just appear to be a slanted tree, a temporary inconvenience that they might have to duck under, or clamber over. Maggie and Julia knew that if they climbed up the slant, using the stubs that the tree had sticking out of it as handholds and footholds, then they would soon go above and to the left of the trail, and at the end of the tree, perhaps 15-20 feet in the air, was a little cluster of fallen branches that perched in between two branches, similar to a humongous bird nest. Maggie and Julia had found it while exploring one day, and ever since it had been their secret treehouse. None of the parents knew about it, as Julia's mom wouldn't care and Maggie's dad would freak out and Maggie's mom would use it to store dead animals that she had shot. The girls decided not to tell the boys either. At first, they had said that they would let them know in a few days, but days turned to weeks, weeks to months, and months into years. They still considered telling them sometimes, but couldn't really think of a good enough reason to.

" Come on up, Julia!" Maggie called out to her friend. Maggie turned and shimmied up the trunk, mindful not to hit her knee on any of the handholds. She soon reached the nest, and sld into it feet first. She was about to call out for Julia again, when her foot hit something cold, hard, and... with a corner?

**Again, Thanks everyone for reading! I have decided to update on Sundays, but will not be posting on the week of Feb. 9th because of some family business. Thanks to ****_kimbaleena2002_**** and ****_OSG loves to read_**** for putting this story/author on alerts, and thanks to Guest #1 for reviewing! Please review with your opinion, and let me know as many of the following as you wish:**

**1. Who do you think will win the superbowl? Broncos or Seahawks (GO HAWKS!)**

**2. If you were Maggie, would you tell Kyle and Matthew about the treehouse? Why/Why not?**

**3. If you were Maggie, and found something cold, hard, and with a corner, would you:**

_**a. scream and run away, then refuse to go back**_

_**b. think nothing of it- this is an everyday occurence**_

_**c. distract Julia and go back until you can come back by yourself?**_

_**d. other? What would YOU do?**_

**This might affect what Maggie does, so choose carefully! If you leave me a review while signed in, just add #sneakpeek3 and I will send a sneak peek of chapter 3 to your account (you can also PM me if you favorite/follow me or the story and I will send you the sneak peek).**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Athenachild101**


	4. Chapter 3: A Key to my Heart

**Chapter 3**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Hunger Games, nor am I affiliated in any way with Suzanne Collins.**

Maggie immediately screamed and jumped back, almost falling out of the nest/ treehouse. Julia called up, concerned.

"Maggie? What's wrong? What is going on up there, and what is with all the screaming?"

Maggie leaned back, closed her eyes, and tried to catch her breath. 'There is nothing there,' she told herself. 'Some little kid probably found the nest and decided to use it as a storage place. Besides, what is the worst thing it could be?' Maggie asked herself. 'A bomb that will blow you and District 12 up sky high and kill everyone' an annoying voice in the back of Maggie's head said, but Maggie promptly told it to shove it. She really hated that voice.

"Uhh... I dunno" Maggie called down to Julia. "I just slid in and my foot hit something hard."

Julia scoffed. "Maggie, of course it hit something hard! It is made of sticks! You are such a chicken sometimes. Come down, and let me show you how it is done."

Maggie clambered down, and Julia started ascending. As soon as Julia reached the rim, she turned and winked at Maggie, then slid in. Immediately Julia started screaming, and hauled herself out of the nest and tumbled onto the brush below. Maggie ran over to where Julia was brushing herself off, and allowed herself a small laugh. Maggie had known that Julia would freak out- Julia was an even bigger chicken than Maggie. Julia glared at Maggie hard, and Maggie stopped laughing and bit her lip hard to keep from smiling.

"Fine, Mellark. Let's go up together. And let's make a deal- no screaming. If someone screams, they have to buy the other ice cream, and hearing aids if the other one needs them." Maggie giggled again. Trust Julia to turn it into a competition with a sweet punishment or reward. Also, Maggie just KNEW that she would be getting ice cream. Julia screamed at everything- if a dog barked too loud or a cat meowed several times she would start screaming that it was the sign of death, and that dogs knew when someone was going to die in the next minute. Julia was super paranoid.

Slowly, both girls crept up the tree trunk, struggling to keep their balance while crawling next to each other. They reached the top of the trunk, near the nest, and Maggie mouthed "One... two... three... jump!"

Both girls half jumped, half slid into the treehouse nest, and as expected, Julia let out a small shriek as her foot collided with the corner of the box. "You owe me an ice cream, Julia! I prefer chocolate swirl, but mint chocolate chip would work just fine as well." Maggie teased, Julia stuck out her tongue at Maggie, and then they both turned their focus to the box.

It was a smallish box, about the size of a very thick book, like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling, but when Maggie picked it up it was pretty light. It was silverish and had small feet on the bottoms, and had a small keyhole on the latch in the shape of a heart. Julia took it gently from Maggie and started trying to pry the box open with her fingers, then a stick, then by slamming it against the side of the tree. She had only thrown it against the tree once, though, when Maggie stopped her.

"Don't throw it- you might dent it or maybe break whatever is inside. Plus, we don't know for sure that it is even ours. Let's try and figure out if we have something that might be the key," Maggie stated.

Julia nodded reluctantly. "Okay... so none of our clothes will fit, so what about an earring, or barrette, or ring, or bracelet, or necklace, or-" Maggie stopped Julia impatiently.

"Okaaay," Maggie said slowly. "Let's try our jewelry. I only have my hair pin and my necklace from Haymitch. What do you have?"

Julia started pulling off jewelry. That was another thing that made Julia different from her mother- Julia loved anything girly and glittery, while her mother hated it. Julia was always wearing tons of bracelets and sparkly hair pins and necklaces. Maggie knew that if they had to try all of Julia's jewelry they might be there for quite a while. "Let's see..." Julia started "I have my necklace from christmas, my bracelet that I made on our school trip, my bracelet that I got for learning how to ride a bike..."

As Julia continued to list every piece of jewelry's history and background, Maggie tuned out and started looking around the forest. One of the things that she loved about this forest was every single time that she came, something was a little bit different, and she loved trying to find out what that was. Sometimes it was as small as a rabbit having nibbled on a leaf, leaving a small indentation, sometimes it was as large as a windstorm having knocked a tree over. One time, a humongous old tree had fallen on top of the tree that they used to climb up to the treehouse. The girls were both super worried that it would block of their way, but they borrowed an axe from one of the abandoned houses near the edge of the woods and slowly chopped the tree down, piece by piece, until they could move it away completely. Julia's voice snapped Maggie out of her reverie.

"And a hair pin from when I fell down the stairs and I wouldn't stop crying until Annie gave me this pin. That's all of mine. Can I go first?" Julia finished.

Maggie sighed. They would be here all night, and she had a feeling that none of Julia's pieces would work. They were all too... frilly and cheap to be a key to a box. "Tell you what," Maggie bargained, "you try all of the pieces that you think might fit, then I will try the ones that might fit, and then if none of those fit we can go back and try all of the rest. Does that sound like a good plan to you?"

"Sure," Julia agreed, and she promptly started sorting all of her bracelets into two piles: Ones with heart charms, and ones without. All in all, it took her about twelve or thirteen minutes to try all of the ones that she thought might fit, and none of them did. "Your turn, Mags!" Julia chattered, turning the box so that the locking side faced Maggie. Maggie slowly unhooked the heart shaped necklace that she always wore. It had been a present when she was very little, and Haymitch had said that it would be very important someday, so she had always worn it. So far, all it had done was hang around her neck and look pretty, but could this be the important purpose that it was meant to serve? Maggie carefully turned it in her hands so that the engraved side, which read "Your heart is the key to love". Was that some sort of clue? It did say that the heart was a key. Taking a deep breath, Maggie pushed the key deep into the lock, and heard a quiet 'click' of it opening. Julia squealed. "It worked, Maggie! It actually worked!"

Maggie smiled. She pulled the necklace from the keyhole and put it back around her neck. Then she carefully lifted up the lid, which moved very smoothly now that it had been locked, Inside was a photograph and a letter. Maggie passed the photograph to Julia and started to read the letter out loud.

"_Dear Maggie, Julia, Matthew, and Kyle,_

_I have something to tell you because I believe that you are all old enough to know about your parents. I know that some of you have been very curious about their history for a long time, and some of you respected their wishes for you to not know until you were older. I was in favor of telling you one your tenth birthday, however that did not happen and I seriously doubt that they will ever tell you. After all, they pulled you out school because they did not want you to know about their history._

_But I have kept you guessing long enough. I will teach you a little bit every every week about something called the Hunger Games. You do not know what this is yet, and that is okay. Soon you will. But it is very important that you do not tell your parents that you are learning all of this. There will be a time for you to tell them. So I am offering you a deal. Every week I will put a little piece of the story in here, and you can read it and look at it, and eventually you will understand what your parents had to go through. If you want to accept this deal, take this letter and the photo of Katniss and Peeta in the tribute parade and I will know that you have seen this and you want to continue. If you do not wish to learn, then take the photo but leave the letter so I will know that you at least received all of the information._

_Until next time,_

_Haymitch Abernathy, Victor of the 50th annual Hunger Games"._

**Thanks for reading! Please follow, favorite, and review. As usual, if you do any of these and either add into your comment or PM me #sneakpeek4, I will send you a sneak peek of the next chapter.**

**IMPORTANT NOTE: I will not be updating next Sunday, because I will be out of country and can not take my laptop, but the update in two weeks will be extra long!**

**Thanks for reading, y'all! Go Seahawks!**


	5. Chapter 4: Daring Decisions!

Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games, nor am I in any way affiliated with Suzanne Collins.**

Maggie released the note slowly, and it fluttered to the floor of the nest softly, but neither of them noticed. Maggie could hear the blood pounding in her ears, and her vision had black dots in it. She realized that she was swaying, and righted herself before she fell off of the rim of the nest. Julia wasn't doing much better. She was frozen in place, staring at the photo without moving.

A mockingjay call brought them both back to the present.

"What was... I mean, why... I mean, well, I don't know what I mean!" Julia stammered nervously. "What the heck was that? What are the Hunger Games? And why are they so important?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Probably better, actually, because I am thinking somewhere along the lines of Cinderella meets Zombie Apocalypse," Maggie responded sarcastically.

"Wait... how would that work? Would it be something like Zombies running around with glass slippers on? Because I honestly don't think that..." Julia started sincerely, but Maggie cut her off.

"I was kidding! Can I see the photo of my parents? I want to know what this tribute parade is about." Maggie held out her hand, and Julia looked down and started slightly. Maggie figured that she must have forgotten she was holding it. Slowly, Julia passed the photo to Maggie. Julia sat back down on the opposite side of the treehouse, her head leaning back against a branch, face tilted to the sky, eyes closed. Maggie thought that it was the first time that she had ever seen Julia be quiet and not have anything to say. Then again, there wasn't much that she could say. They had just found a box telling them that they could find out what they had wanted to know so badly since they were little, but in order to find out they would have to lie to their parents, and go behind their backs. And Maggie wasn't quite sure she wanted to know her parent's history yet- sure, it had sounded interesting when she was 8 and thought that her mom was a disney princess, but now that she knew that it was something so... intense that they would pull her out of school so she didn't find out? That made her nervous. Really nervous.

Maggie took a breath, then looked down at the photograph in her hands. At first, she thought that it couldn't possibly her mother and her father. Then she realized that it was clearly her mother and father, because apart from the flames and makeup, they looked the exact same.

The photo was of Katniss and Peeta in some sort of carriage, with black one-piece suits and fire coming off of their suits and their hair. They were both holding hands, and Katniss held a rose in one hand as they waved.

"Who are they waving to?" Maggie wondered out loud. Julia looked down at her and opened her eyes.

"I don't know! But we might find out if we take his offer. First, though, we need to talk to the boys. There is no point in hiding our secret treehouse from them. If we all decide to do it, I have a feeling that we will be up here an awful lot." Julia said. Maggie nodded, agreeing with Julia's logic.

"Okay, do you want to run and get them? They are probably in the meadow playing soccer, or doing whatever boys like to do on an afternoon off." Maggie said to Julia, who nodded gravely and clambered out of the treehouse.

As Julia started to walk off, she turned and called up to Maggie "Make sure the treehouse is all cleaned up! Get rid of all of the trash, and sweep off a little bit so it looks nice!" Maggie smirked. It was no secret that Julia had a crush on Kyle, Annie's son. Everyone knew about it except Kyle. He was a little bit ignorant, just like Julie. Maggie did as she was told and gathered up all of the pop cans and threw them into a neighboring tree, where she could retrieve them later. She took a small twig broom that the girls had constructed when they were younger and started to sweep off the seats, pausing occasionally to twist a stick back into the framework if it had come loose. When they first discovered the nest, they had decided that it would be smart to braid some of the top layers of flexible twigs to make it a more comfortable place to sit, and it had worked very well for a long time. Now, the twigs that had made up the braids were starting to fray from age and weather, and so they often had to twist twigs back in, or re-braid a section all over again! Almost at the exact same time as Maggie finished (she had just propped the b room against the side and was dusting the dirt off of her hands), she heard footsteps running down the trail.

She looked down and saw Kyle running as fast as he could, with Julie slightly behind him throwing rocks and pinecones at his feet to try and slow him down. Maggie could see Matthew, her little brother, coming round the curve many yards behind Kyle and Julia. Kyle reached the tree-bridge first, and leaned back, propping his arm against it and leaning back. Seconds later, Julia rammed into it and lay on top of the tree, catching her breath.

Kyle looked up and saw Maggie, giving her a wave and a smile. "Hey, Mags! What's up? And I mean literally up, cause I don't know what is up there." Kyle said jokingly. Maggie smiled. Kyle was 14, just a year older than her, and he was very good looking. He was tall and lean, with bronze skin and lightish golden hair. Maggie liked him for a long time as a friend, but recently had thought about liking him as something more. But whenever those feelings started to come up, she squashed them down. She knew that Julia had liked him for longer, and she didn't want to damage their friendship because of a boy.

Realizing that Kyle was waiting for an answer, she laughed. "It's our treehouse fort! We found it and... er... modified it so it was more comfortable and nice. Come up?" Maggie said. Kyle look impressed, and hopped up onto the tree-bridge and started climbing up to the main nest and sitting area. Julia followed after talking to Matt for a second and then Matt came up last. As soon as Kyle reached the top his jaw dropped. Maggie had gotten used to seeing the treehouse, but she supposed that to someone who had never seen it before, it would be pretty incredible, especially with all of the decorating that the girls had done. They had scavenged dumps for a circle rug, and when they finally found one they had put up a flatter floor with sides from an old set of drawers, some nails from Julia's father's toolbox, and a hammer that they had found laying around. They had found a lamp that didn't need to be plugged in, and some fuzzy pillows. Every time that they left the treehouse they pulled a huge tarp over everything so that nothing got ruined in the wet. Maggie smiled nonchalantly.

"Do you like it?" she asked Kyle. He nodded, turned around once, then sat down on the ground against a pink polka dotted pillow. Julia came up and sat in her normal place on the padded purple seat cushion, and finally Matt came bounding up the log. His eyes widened.

"Wow, cool!" He said, picking up a blue and green pillow. "Wow, cool!" he flipped the switch on the lamp a few times. "Wow, cool!" he jumped up and down on the rug and started dancing around. Maggie had to stifle her giggles. Her brother, who was only eleven, didn't have a very large vocabulary.

" Come on, sit down Matt." Maggie gestured to a green padded seat cushion across from her, and her brother sat down in it with one final "Wow, cool!". Maggie turned to Julia. "Do you want to explain what we found, and why we called the boys up here?"

Julia nodded solemnly. "Okay, so today when we decided to come up here and found this locked silverish box. The key was the heart shaped necklace that Maggie had, and when we opened it up we found this letter and photo. We didn't know quite what to do, so we decided to call you up here." Julia passed Matt the photo and Kyle the letter, then the girls stared at the boys as they looked the letter and the photo. Matt sat there silently, looking a little confused. Kyle was mouthing the words to the letter, and every now and then his eyes would go wide or he would crinkle his eyebrows together. As soon as Kyle looked up from the letter, Julia pounced.

"So? What do you think we should do?" As soon as she asked, Kyle and Matt both looked at her and said in unison "But I didn't get to see the other one yet!". Julia rolled her eyes and gave the letter to Matt and the picture to Kyle. Then the girls sat and waited again, until Matt finally finished reading.

"Okay... so what do you guys think we should do?" Maggie asked. Matt raised his hand like he was in school and Maggie was the teacher. "Who are Katniss and Peeta?" he asked seriously. Maggie laughed. "That's mom and dad's real names, doofus."

"Are you kidding? Of course we have to say yes! Our parents didn't just meet randomly and get to be such great friends, maybe they met in these games! And if that is the case, maybe we can learn a little bit more about my d- I mean, about all of our parents." Kyle said. Maggie flinched. He had almost said his dad, who had died before he was born. None of the adults would say anything about Kyle's father, and the only thing Kyle knew about him was his name: Finnick Odair. Maybe this would tell them more about Finnick.

"That's what I thought. I mean, we have been asking about this stuff for ages! Let's do it. All in favor, raise your hands." Julia said. Julia and Kyle's hands shot up first, with Matt's shortly behind and Maggie's going up slowly.

"Alright. I'll take the photo, and Julia, you take the letter. Let's meet here again in four days right after home school gets out- that should be plenty of time for Haymitch to give us our next piece of information! Oh- and Matt? I think that I saw your teddy bear down the trail a little ways." Maggie said. Matt's eyes widened and he practically leaped out of the tree house and went chasing after his bear. Kyle followed Matt, and soon Julia and Maggie were alone again. Maggie pressed the necklace into the box to lock it again, and together they slowly pulled the tarp over the box before walking away from the tree back to the house.

**Thanks for reading! Please review and let me know if you think that:**

**-Kyle and Maggie should have a little bit of romance**

**-Kyle and Julia should have a little bit of romance**

**-Or no romance.**

**This isn't a romance centered story, so when I say a little, I really do mean a little. As usual, follow, favorite, and PM or comment #****_sneakpeek5_**** if you want me to send you a sneak peek of chapter 5! Until next Sunday!**

**-Athenachild101**


	6. Chapter 5: Friends till the End

**A/N: I am not Suzanne Collins, nor do I own the Hunger Games!**

**I am sooooooo sorry it has been so long since I posted- but I'm back! More detail in the bottom... until then:**

**Chapter 5!**

Maggie did not think that the next four days could have gone any slower. The kids had all gotten ahead on their schoolwork, and negotiated an afternoon off of school with their parents, who agreed reluctantly as soon as they saw how hard the kids were working to get ahead on their work. So it was with great joy that, at precisely 12:03 pm, Maggie slammed her math textbook down (the kids had also persuaded Annie to teach them math, instead of Peeta), grabbed her light green windbreaker, slid on her Nikes, and ran out the door with Julia. They got to the treehouse in record time, only for Maggie to realize that, in all of the excitement, she had forgotten the key. The two girls sprinted back to the house, and Julia collapsed on the front porch while Maggie ran up the stairs to retrieve the key. Just as she was about to turn the hall to get into her room, her mother appeared in front of her. Maggie stopped quickly, nearly slamming into her mother, then looked up guiltily to find that her mother was laughing.

"Whoa, Madge. Watch where you're going!" Maggie's mother had always called Maggie 'Madge'. Whenever Maggie asked her why she didn't just call her Margaret, or Maggie, or Mags like everyone else did, she just smiled and said that she would tell Maggie when she was older. Maggie supposed that it was just one more thing she would have to ask Haymitch about. She really needed to write down a list before she forgot any of her questions...

"MAGGIE! COME ON!" Julia shouted. "CAN'T YOU FIND IT?" Maggie sighed, then turned to her mother.

"Excuse me, mama. Julia's waiting for me to get our... map of the woods." Maggie lied. There was absolutely no way she was going to tell her mother about the box and letters in the woods. At the very least, she would never be able to go outside again- especially into the woods. At the most? Maggie really didn't want to know what would happen, but she suspected her mother's bow and arrows would make an appearance and that there would be lots of blood. Katniss raised her eyebrow, but stepped aside to let Maggie pass.

Maggie grabbed the heart shaped necklace, clasped it quickly around her neck, then grabbed a crumpled piece of paper and a pencil so that her mom would believe the 'map of the woods' lie, if she was still in the hall.

Maggie slipped out the door, realizing with relief that her mom had left, then jogged back down the stairs to meet Julia, who was pretending to be asleep. Maggie punched her lightly in the arm, and she sprung up with a cry.

"Well, it's about time! The boys have probably been there for a few minutes now, and they will mess the treehouse up and totally trash the place. Come ON!" Maggie smirked and Julia's rant- she was a total neat freak, which was another thing that she didn't get from her mother. Johanna tossed her stuff everywhere, and without Julia her house would be a complete and utter mess.

"Julia, stop ranting. You're just making us go slower. C'mon, let's just go already!" Maggie said, already halfway down the front steps, with Julia hot on her heels.

"Uhh.. Hey, Mags? I have a question for you..." Julia mumbled. Maggie turned around impatiently.

"What is it? We need to get going." Maggie moaned, but she stopped to listen. She could tell by Julia's face that this was serious.

"I was watching you and Kyle yesterday, and, well, do you like him? Please don't lie to me. I really want to know the truth." Maggie saw the desperation on Julia's face. She was so nice and bubbly, but had never had any super close friends except for her and her brother and Kyle. Maggie and Kyle had always been the most popular when they went to school, and Matt did okay, but people struggled to understand Julia. She was so naive and simple, and most of the kids at school didn't really get a chance to know her. Maggie knew that she had to think carefully before speaking. If she said yes, Julia might feel that her best friend had betrayed her, and if she said no, Julia would probably know that Maggie was lying. Maggie decided to go with the most honest answer.

"Ummm... I don't know? Honestly, I'm not sure. I try and not like him, and most of the time I don't, but sometimes it is kind of hard." Maggie responded. Julia nodded.

"Okay. I understand. We can't let a guy get between us and our friendship. Let's both just leave it be, and he can choose whichever of us he likes." Julia suggested. Maggie nodded, glad that Julia had such a cool head and was so good tempered.

Both girls simultaneously turned and ran into the woods and up into the tree fort, where they found Matt and Kyle pretending to be asleep. Maggie groaned- that was the oldest trick in the book. She motioned to Julia, who was poised to punch Kyle, to stop, and Maggie handed her a cup of water. The girls smiled, and Maggie held her cup over Kyle's head and Julia held her cup over Matt's head and Maggie silently counted down from 3. On "Zero", both girls dumped the water out and were rewarded with both boys shouting and jumping and grumbling that they knew they shouldn't have faked being asleep.

"Come on, boys, let's just read the letter. Mags, would you do the honor?" Julia motioned to Maggie's key, and Maggie pressed it into the lock, which popped out as usual. Maggie opened the box, revealing a DVD labeled "HG1" and a letter, picked up the letter and began to read it aloud.

_Dear Maggie, Julia, Kyle, and Matt,_

_Good choice in keeping the letter. I trust that you understand how important it is for you to keep this a secret. If your parents find out about this, you might never find out about their past. Today I wanted you to know what the Hunger Games were, so I obtained the video reel that was played at the 74th reaping ceremony (Don't worry, that will be explained later). You can watch it tomorrow night, as I have invited your parents over for drinks. Whenever you need to watch something, I will provide instructions on when and where to watch it._

_Remember that this is a true video, and all of this really happened. Pay close attention to where it explains what the games are- this will probably be important. After you watch it, put the DVD back in this box along with a note with any questions you have and let me know that you watched it. Be careful, and stay alive._

_Haymitch Abernathy, Victor of the 50th annual Hunger Games_

**A/N: Thanks so much for sticking with me! I know I have been gone for a while, and I will be back to updating regularly. My family was attending the funeral of a family member for a while, so needless to say I wasn't really working on this story. But I'm back, and updates will resume every Sunday!**

**Thanks for reading! Please review and let me know if you think that:**

**-Kyle and Maggie should have a little bit of romance**

**-Kyle and Julia should have a little bit of romance**

**-Or no romance.**

**This isn't a romance centered story, so when I say a little, I really do mean a little. As usual, follow, favorite, and PM or comment #sneakpeek6 if you want me to send you a sneak peek of chapter 6! Until next Sunday!**

**XOXOXO**

**Athenachild101**


	7. Chapter 6: Movie Night!

**Chapter 6 Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games, nor am I in any way affiliated with Suzanne Collins**

Maggie was very impatient for her parents to leave. About five minutes ago, they had said that they needed to go get ready to have drinks at Haymitch's house. Katniss was the only one ready- Maggie appreciated her mother's ability to get ready quickly. Honestly, why did it take so long for adults to throw on a nice shirt and run a comb through their hair? Matter of fact, why did they need to dress up at all? It was only Haymitch's house, and he would probably be a total drunk mass anyways.  
Finally, FINALLY, the adults left. Maggie, Julia, Kyle, and Matt decided to wait five minutes before starting the tape, and they were glad that they did. Johanna came back because she had worn two different shoes (one was red, one was purple). She hadn't wanted to change, but Annie had made her. Then Johanna's husband, Leo, came in to change his shirt after he spilled all down the front of it. Lastly, Katniss came in because she had forgotten her pills that kept her from having what she called "panic moments". Finally, the kids were sure that the parents were gone for good.  
Maggie grabbed Kyle with her right arm and Julia with her left, and started to drag them down the stairs into the basement with the television.  
"Come on! Don't you want to watch the video? I want to get this over with as soon as possible, in case someone realizes they left their head behind, or something like that. Besides, don't you want to know what these Hunger Game things are?" Maggie snapped.  
Julia nodded. "Of course I want to know, Mags. We all do!"  
Kyle nodded, agreeing with Julia's statement.  
"Fine, Julia. Do you have the disc?" Maggie asked.  
"I have it here," Kyle interrupted, pulling it out from his pocket. He handed it to Maggie, who wiped it with the sleeve of her purple sweatshirt and went to insert it into the DVD player. While she was fiddling with the control settings of the disc (it was very old, so she had to do it all manually), Kyle, Julia, and Matt were having a debate over what the Hunger Games were. "Like Monopoly, but with food instead of houses?" Matt suggested.  
"An eating contest!" Kyle said smugly.  
"A contest to see who can go the longest without eating," Julia retorted back to Kyle, who didn't look so smug anymore.  
Finally, Maggie got the disc to play. She grabbed the remote control and the four went to sit on the worn cream couch across from the television. Maggie turned to say something to Julia, then decided against it and hit 'play'. A voice boomed out from the speakers, and Maggie hurried to push the 'volume down' button' on the remote until it was at a reasonable volume.

_**"War, terrible war. Widows, orphans, a motherless child."**_

Maggie paused the tape. "Aren't all wars terrible? I mean, what made this one so much worse? And what war was it? World war 1? 2? 3? Civil war? Did we learn about it in school?"  
Julia swiveled her head to face Maggie. "I don't know! Just play it and see if that tells us! I know as much as you do, maybe less!" Maggie hit the play button again, this time braced for the echoing, booming, but slightly quieter voice coming from the speakers.

**_"This was the uprising that rocked our land."_ **

"We didn't learn about any uprising in school!" Matt exclaimed, but the others all shushed him.

**_"Thirteen districts rebelled against the country that fed them, loved them, protected them."_**

This time it was Julia who spoke up. "The districts rebelled?" She asked. "We never learned about that in school. And why does it say 13 districts, when there are only 12?"

_**"Brother turned on brother until nothing remained. And then came the peace, hard fought, sorely won."** _

"What does this have to do with our parents or The Hunger Games?" Maggie asked. "I mean, I seriously doubt that they fought in a war. Maybe everyone who didn't fight in the war was starving or something?"

_**"A people rose up from the ashes and a new era was born"** _

Matt gasped. "Wait... If they rose up from the ashes, were they like... Zombies? Is mom a zombie? Mom's a Zombie!"  
"No, Matt. It's just an expression," Maggie explained. "But I still don't see how this is a bad thing! Isn't it good if there was a new era after a war?"

_** "But freedom has a cost. When the traitors were defeated, we swore as a nation that we would never know this treason again."**_

"What is treason?" asked Matt.  
"Treason is when you betray your country or are a traitor to your country," Kyle explained self-importantly. Maggie punched him lightly on the arm, and he fake grabbed it and started pretending that it had hurt.  
"Oh, shut up." Maggie teased.

**_"And so it was decreed that every year the various districts of Panem would offer up in tribute one young man and women"_ **

"Maybe this is where our parents come in!" Julia said excitedly.  
"I really hope it is a pie eating contest," said Kyle. "I want to see Johanna with a pie smacked on her face so bad!" Maggie and Matt laughed, agreeing with him, while Julia looked indignant.

**_ "To fight to the death in a pageant of honor, courage, and sacrifice"_**

At first there was a silence in the room. All of the kids were staring at the screen in horror, as if waiting for someone to walk in and yell 'Fooled you!'. But needless to say, that never happened. Julia was the first to unfreeze. She collapsed back onto the chair and said "Oh. My. God. What is that? Our parents had to fight to the death?" No one responded.  
At last, Maggie shook herself off. "Let's watch the rest of the tape. There is not much left, and maybe it isn't really that bad."

_** "The lone victor, bathed in riches, would serve as a reminder of our generosity and our forgiveness. This is how we remember our past. This is how we safeguard our future."**_

The film had ended, and static was playing on the screen, but none of the kids really noticed. Suddenly, Kyle realized something. "Um, Mags? You guys and Haymitch live in the biggest, nicest houses in the district, right?" he asked. Maggie knew what he was talking about.  
"Yeah, so do you and Julia," she defended herself.  
Kyle took a deep breath. "Remember what these villages are called? Victor's village. I think that our parents won the Hunger Games."

**A/N: Thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting, following, and all that other stuff! Sorry that it is a few hours late- I've been really busy. **

**Please review and let me know if you think that: **

**-Kyle and Maggie should have a little bit of romance (2 votes so far)  
-Kyle and Julia should have a little bit of romance (0 votes so far)  
-Or no romance. (1 vote so far)  
**

**This isn't a romance centered story, so when I say a little, I really do mean a little. Also, they are about 13-14, so it will be basic, light romance. As usual, follow, favorite, and PM or comment #sneakpeek7 if you want me to send you a sneak peek of chapter 7! Until next Sunday!  
**

**XOXOXO **

**Athenachild101**


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